Is there a problem with bounce rates on Google Analytics?

[dickbaker]

I've been reading some threads here from people questioning the bounce rates reported by GA. I'm experiencing a similar issue, but maybe not for the same reasons.

Last year the bounce rate for my site was about 42% in GA. My stats program showed that about 42% of visitors viewed one page. So things were in line.

Sometime earlier this year my bounce rate in GA went up to 48% or so, but the stats number remained the same.

Last Wednesday I uploaded a newly designed site. Links, navigation and everything else are the same. Only the look has changed.

I got scared when GA showed a bounce rate of 53%. Looking at my stats, though, the number of visitors who viewed one page was still around 42%.

Is GA broken, or could there be something else going on?

[gn_wendy]

Have your visits - that is new visits - increased by about the same amount?

I had this issue after an update in the navigation. A user would switch between different areas of the site and GA registered it as a bounce AND a new visit. Going back to the old code for the navigation solved the issue, whatever it was.

[dickbaker]

No, visits are about the same.

Another odd thing is that Google is now showing fewer page views for each day than my stats program is. Prior to the design change, Google always was about 1,000 page views higher per day.

I went through and checked the tracking code on all my page templates, and it's correct for all.

I don't get it.